Re: [PanoToolsNG] Dynamic JavaVRs?

... No, really, you don t want to do that, seriously. Your page contains thumbnails - nice, small files, fast to load. They can each be a link that will call a

Message 1 of 13
, Jul 10, 2006

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On 11/07/2006, at 12:05 PM, Mark Banas (lists) wrote:

> I guess what I should look for is the easiest to configure applet to
> read the image from the page and simply display it.

No, really, you don't want to do that, seriously.

Your page contains thumbnails - nice, small files, fast to load. They
can each be a link that will call a page (same one if you want) that
will bring up the (java) pano in it's own window or in the base page,
downloading the full sized image only when (or if) it's needed. All
you need to do is pass your PHP script a variable that will identify
the image you want to display, and have a function or routine to
handle it in the script. Pretty simple stuff.

Cheers,
KathyW.

yuval_levy

Hi Mark, I am not exactly sure I understand what you are trying to achieve here, but there are a few possibilities. I will first ask you some questions to

Message 2 of 13
, Jul 10, 2006

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Hi Mark,

I am not exactly sure I understand what you are trying to achieve
here, but there are a few possibilities. I will first ask you some
questions to understand your needs.

When you write about an an <quote> easier to understand "visual
format" for non-pano folk (as opposed to an equirect) </quote> do you
mean for the thumbnail or for the image as a whole? and do you want
the image to be interactive, i.e. the user to click and drag inside
like a VR, or do you want to show a transformed version of the
equirect, flat on the page?

There are a number of viewing technologies. My take on them is to be
agnostic and try to deliver the VR in whatever technology is available
on the browser.

(BTW, that's me with Jean-Marc Paratte discussing the French
translation of Pano2QTVR and other fun stuff while it was pouring rain
outside). Jean-Marc holds the copyright for the ASP script and the pano.

A similar approach in PHP (wont work for much longer as I have to
remake completely that website - it is not even Eola compliant):

The filenum or id parameters tell the script what panorama out of a
list, usually in a database, to display. In Jean-Marc's script it also
determine the technology. My script is mono-technology and thus
inferior: people w/o Java won't see it, while people w/o Java but with
QuickTime will see the second link from Jean-Marc.

Choice is the difficult stage - most people do not know nor care what
panorama displaying technology the have on their computer. This is why
I wrote Brocap, a tool to detect the technology available and use it.

The main difference is in the master format of the VR. For me it is
the equirect, while for Bernhard it is the QTVR. He has scripts that
transform on the spot a QTVR into Spi-V cubefaces. The jointly
developed scripts are available at <http://dativ.at/brocap/> and I
should fix the bugs and release the latest version at
<http://br.xenaura.com/> - with a little bit of PHP knowledge you'll
get Bernhard's version up and running fairly quick, but it has no Java
support because using Java to display the QTVR format is tricky and
does not always work.

This is why I took the equirectangular as input format. I have written
a script to transform the equirectangular into the different output
formats (using Pano2QTVR for the QTVRs and ImageMagick / PanoTools for
the rest), although the transformations can also be done manually.
This runs offline, so it requires more storage space on the server but
is faster in the delivery process.

I am currently examining a few content management systems to see if I
can integrate my viewing technology as a module / plug in. Then,
publishing panos dynamically will become as easy as writing text with
a word processor.

Yuv

Mark Banas (lists)

... Heh, simple for you perhaps! 8-} I am thinking that each pano would be linked from an image-specific page like this one:

Message 3 of 13
, Jul 10, 2006

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On Jul 10, 2006, at 10:35 PM, Kathy Wheeler wrote:

>
> On 11/07/2006, at 12:05 PM, Mark Banas (lists) wrote:
>> I guess what I should look for is the easiest to configure applet to
>> read the image from the page and simply display it.
>
> No, really, you don't want to do that, seriously.
>
> Your page contains thumbnails - nice, small files, fast to load. They
> can each be a link that will call a page (same one if you want) that
> will bring up the (java) pano in it's own window or in the base page,
> downloading the full sized image only when (or if) it's needed. All
> you need to do is pass your PHP script a variable that will identify
> the image you want to display, and have a function or routine to
> handle it in the script. Pretty simple stuff.

I guess my thinking (correct me if I'm wrong here) is that since the
image has already been loaded on the page at an acceptable resolution
(1000x500) then it would be a matter of referencing that same image
in the the source of the Java VR. In other words the PHP for the new
window with the pano would build off of whatever the Gallery page
defined as the source of the main image, which in this case is this
cryptic bit of code going back to the database:
img src="main.php?
g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=16&g2_serialNumber=2"

IIRC: I think this is done to prevent wholesale image theft, and to
allow high-res images to be uploaded and resampled for various views
automatically, but these images are actually JPEG-HDR, so they are
not resampled at all (or they would lose the 32-bit depth) but their
location is known only in the database entries.

What I think you are saying is that I need to look at the PHP for the
Gallery display pages and figure out how it goes from thumbnail to
main image and defines that img src, and then to do the same in my
panoviewer PHP. Correct? Does it matter that at the time the
panoviewer page is called the previous page already has the correct
database entry in the generated page it is linked from?

Sorry if this is all "way basic PHP" for you, but I'm trying to
shoehorn a feature into a gallery setup that already meets 90% of my
needs.

-Mark

Mark Banas (lists)

... Hi Yuv, Image as a whole, click-and-drag JavaVR. I d prefer JavaVR (whatever type) mainly because my images are already equirectangulars and would work as

Message 4 of 13
, Jul 10, 2006

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On Jul 10, 2006, at 11:37 PM, yuval_levy wrote:

> When you write about an an <quote> easier to understand "visual
> format" for non-pano folk (as opposed to an equirect) </quote> do you
> mean for the thumbnail or for the image as a whole? and do you want
> the image to be interactive, i.e. the user to click and drag inside
> like a VR, or do you want to show a transformed version of the
> equirect, flat on the page?

Hi Yuv,

Image as a whole, click-and-drag JavaVR. I'd prefer JavaVR (whatever
type) mainly because my images are already equirectangulars and would
work as a source - and because Java has a much greater installed base
than Shockwave (for Spi-V).

While I am sure the delice was just that, the above links are pretty
much what I want to avoid: no pano ever displayed from either link.
I think panoserve.atoms.ch wasn't responding fast enough (or at all)...

As Kathy and Sacha have alluded to, this is probably dead simple if I
know what I'm doing. Problem is that I'm starting out with a pretty
fully-developed gallery system and image manager, but trying to stick
this onto it. Might be better for me to start asking questions of the
kind folks who developed the gallery in the first place. If only
their VR viewer actually *worked* I wouldn't have to consider this! I
might not even pursue it in the end, if only because it could be such
a waste of time for what amounts to meeting a need I don't know if I
have. I mean, these aren't real estate images - these are simply
panoramic HDR images!

BTW, now that some of you have actually loaded the "high-res"
equirectangular image onto your screen - congratulations, you have
been served one of the few truly High Dynamic Range Images viewable
on the internet! In other words, your browser thought that was a
tonemapped JPEG, but the image itself contains the 32-bit luminance
data just waiting for you to copy it to your desktop and open it with
Photosphere or something else that reads JPEG-HDR files.

In the very near future, those of us with HDR monitors won't see the
tonemapped version, but rather a luminously glowing image surrounded
by the otherwise flat, grey interface of a naive browser. Pretty cool
once you think about it...

-Mark

Kathy Wheeler

... I just did a right click View Image on that img and it certainly came up too fast to be coming from anywhere other than the browser cache so in theory it

Message 5 of 13
, Jul 10, 2006

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On 11/07/2006, at 2:18 PM, Mark Banas (lists) wrote:

> I guess my thinking (correct me if I'm wrong here) is that since the
> image has already been loaded on the page at an acceptable resolution
> (1000x500) then it would be a matter of referencing that same image
> in the the source of the Java VR. In other words the PHP for the new
> window with the pano would build off of whatever the Gallery page
> defined as the source of the main image, which in this case is this
> cryptic bit of code going back to the database:
> img src="main.php?
> g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=16&g2_serialNumber=2"

I just did a right click "View Image" on that img and it certainly
came up too fast to be coming from anywhere other than the browser
cache so in theory it should work fine. The only thing I am a little
uncertain of is how the java viewers interface with the browser/
server. IF they simply call for the image as (in this case) "main.php?
g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=16&g2_serialNumber=2"
then it should work. Certainly worth a try.

> What I think you are saying is that I need to look at the PHP for the
> Gallery display pages and figure out how it goes from thumbnail to
> main image and defines that img src, and then to do the same in my
> panoviewer PHP. Correct?

Yes.

> Does it matter that at the time the
> panoviewer page is called the previous page already has the correct
> database entry in the generated page it is linked from?

Shouldn't do. The index for that image should not change. I haven't
looked at the PHP for Gallery2 to be certain, but it's certainly
worth a try. If you need any help feel free to contact me off-list so
we don't bore the good people here with technical coding, just the
announcement when you get it working ;-)

Cheers,
KathyW.

Kathy Wheeler

... Where do I get me one of those monitors and can I afford it (think I know the answer to the last bit :-( KathyW.

Message 6 of 13
, Jul 10, 2006

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On 11/07/2006, at 2:45 PM, Mark Banas (lists) wrote:

> In the very near future, those of us with HDR monitors won't see the
> tonemapped version, but rather a luminously glowing image surrounded
> by the otherwise flat, grey interface of a naive browser. Pretty cool
> once you think about it...

Where do I get me one of those monitors and can I afford it (think I
know the answer to the last bit :-(

KathyW.

Mark Banas (lists)

... http://www.brightsidetech.com/ And, um, right now they are around $50,000 USD and mostly handmade - but that is 40% off of their original price! ;-) As the

Message 7 of 13
, Jul 11, 2006

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On Jul 11, 2006, at 1:23 AM, Kathy Wheeler wrote:

>
> On 11/07/2006, at 2:45 PM, Mark Banas (lists) wrote:
>> In the very near future, those of us with HDR monitors won't see the
>> tonemapped version, but rather a luminously glowing image surrounded
>> by the otherwise flat, grey interface of a naive browser. Pretty cool
>> once you think about it...
>
> Where do I get me one of those monitors and can I afford it (think I
> know the answer to the last bit :-(

And, um, right now they are around $50,000 USD and mostly handmade -
but that is 40% off of their original price! ;-)

As the larger companies, with better manufacturing abilities, get
involved and license the technology the price will likely fall.
However, just as with cameras and computers, the really innovative
stuff will be delayed to maximize the profit of existing tech. I
heard about this technology in 2002, and now 4 years later it can be
"purchased." Maybe in another 4 years it can be "afforded?"

Mark Banas (lists)

... Thanks, Kathy. I will poke around and ask the Gallery2 folks what they recommend first, as well as refresh my grey cells with some details of PHP coding. I

Message 8 of 13
, Jul 11, 2006

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On Jul 11, 2006, at 1:16 AM, Kathy Wheeler wrote:

>> Does it matter that at the time the
>> panoviewer page is called the previous page already has the correct
>> database entry in the generated page it is linked from?
>
> Shouldn't do. The index for that image should not change. I haven't
> looked at the PHP for Gallery2 to be certain, but it's certainly
> worth a try. If you need any help feel free to contact me off-list so
> we don't bore the good people here with technical coding, just the
> announcement when you get it working ;-)

Thanks, Kathy. I will poke around and ask the Gallery2 folks what
they recommend first, as well as refresh my grey cells with some
details of PHP coding. I was thinking the hardest part would be
setting up the java applet to display the image, but it seems just
*getting* the proper image will be the real struggle for me. (After
about an hour last night I understood the Immervision applet and XML
methods - very nice!)

And thanks to Sacha and Yuval's wonderful examples I can see that the
end product is quite feasible and workable! I've seen all this
discussed before, but never had a real need to explore it or learn it.

-Mark

bernharv2000

Hello Mark, I use PHP to create some Spi-V content on the fly. If i understand your simple need to insert a filename into plugin code correctly, a code snippet

Message 9 of 13
, Jul 11, 2006

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Hello Mark,

I use PHP to create some Spi-V content on the fly.

If i understand your simple need to insert a filename into plugin code
correctly, a code snippet for Java content could look like this:

Have a look at Simpleview - an automated PHP/PTviewer based previewer I made some years ago. I might not be exactly what you want, but it can give you some

Message 10 of 13
, Jul 12, 2006

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Have a look at "Simpleview" - an automated PHP/PTviewer based previewer
I made some years ago. I might not be exactly what you want, but it can
give you some idea on how to use PHP for this kind of tasks.